The Cat is Under the Chair

Last Sunday, I went to Pulau Rempang, Indonesia. Rempang is one of the Riau islands in Indonesia. My aunt has been coordinating a regular group of volunteers to go to Rempang once a fortnight for about 2 hours to teach English to primary school students. This was the first time I had gone with the group.


The group convened at 7am+ at the Harbourfront ferry terminal. We took the ferry to Batam, and then a bus took us overland to Rempang. Batam is connected to the neighbouring islands by a series of bridges and it is about an hour from Batam to the mission on Rempang. The two islands are quite different. Batam's economy is manufacturing-dominated; there is a modern shopping mall on Batam (just next to the ferry terminal). The mall has a huge hypermart, a number of food outlets (including an A&W!) and many other shops. It is full of Singaporeans buying cheap groceries and donuts from J Co. (We spent some time there on the way back.)


Rempang, on the other hand, is an agricultural community. Houses are further apart, and are simple wooden and attap structures. On either side of the road, there are fields, but these are also spread out. Not much other development in sight. But the highway through the island is good.

The mission is just off the highway. It is a large compound, dominated by the chapel on one side and the school on the other. There are six classes, from Pr 1 to 6. According to my aunt, it is a popular school on the island, with students coming from all over the island and even from Batam. A few children walk to school, some take the bus, but a number stay on the school premises as their families live too far away for them to walk and as there are not enough buses to cater to the group. The compound itself is well maintained. But there is no running water or electricity. So, the life here is not so easy.

We broke into groups and went for our classes. It is a little too much like rote learning, I think. The children are able to recite the sentences after the volunteer reads them out but later on, when we go through the exercise I realise some of them did not understand. The exercise is one of sentence completion (eg, the cat is __________). We went through once orally with them and after that, they were supposed to write out the answers on their own. But when we went round checking on their progress, I found that whilst some are able to complete the work, others can't really spell and a few have problems getting started. But for those who completed the paper, I just stamped a star on. They really liked that!

During the break and after the session, I took some photos. The children loved to pose. In fact, unless I stand far away and zoom in on the scene, I can't take a candid shot at all! I think about our Singapore kids, their comfortable lives, the cosseting they get from their careful parents. It is such a contrast with these kids here. The boys here play marbles - once a common childhood game in Singapore but I suspect most young boys won't even possess marbles any more. But at least these boys are playing with each other and not with a computer.

Whilst waiting for the group to reconvene, we watched some of the children sing and dance. Here's a short video of some of the boys in action:

After the session, we went back to Batam to take the ferry back to Singapore. One hour out by ferry, another by bus, and another 2 hours to get back. Excludes waiting time at either end and the drive to and from Harbourfront. We got home at 7pm, so it was a 12 hour effort to give a 2 hour lesson. I am impressed by the volunteers who actually do this fortnightly!

Some other photos of the trip can be found on my flickr page.

Table Tennis - Olympics Team Finals

Last Sunday our women's team played the Chinese for a Gold Medal. Well, we did not win and many did not expect us to. But unfortunately Li Jiawei said before the game that she did not expect to win and many people then felt that she was not showing fighting spirit. What will make people happy? Why penalise Jiawei for forgetting how to be politically correct? The newspaper article also commented that she showed more fight during her semi-final match with Zhang Yining in the women's singles. Well, what does one expect? She had not got any medal yet!


I'm quite proud of our table tennis team, so much so that I made a video of the match off my tv. Fortunately, at a point they were doing well. Here is my little video:

Go girls! London 2012!

Oh, Frabjous Day!

It is not every day that Singapore gets an Olympic medal, so I thought I would commemorate it. Well done to our table tennis women's team of Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu, and Fang Tianwei. They have done us proud.

Watching the Olympics, I realised that for many events, it is about consistent excellence. Take the men's gymnastics individual medal, for example. Yang Wei performed consistently well across all apparatus and took the Gold, predictably. But the gentleman who took the Bronze won because he did a great vault, and was consistent throughout the rest of his performances without making mistakes. He was more surprised than anyone else when those ranked above him put a foot wrong or fell off the apparatus, leaving him in third place.

On the subject of gymnastics, I really am very cross with the Starhub folk. They didn't show the repeat telecast of the female gymnastics individual medal! Instead they show women's football, volleyball and beach volleyball. Goodness me. The next day, the papers feature the performance of the female gymnasts and don't give any newsprint to the other three events. Of course pride of place and the most amount of coverage goes to our table tennis gals! Well done again to them!

Finally, I found a number of Olympic atheletes have started blogging. It is quite interesting to browse through them. Here's the link.

p.s. The photo is of the logo on my Beijing Olympics t-shirt, given to me by my classmate who works in the Sports Bureau in one of the Chinese provinces.

Poetry Exercise No. 13: Heroic Verse

Heroic verse is pretty straightforward. Rhyming couplets aabbccdd in good old iambic pentameter. I'd skipped this particular exercise earlier as I wasn't particularly inspired. We were supposed to write about a chap trying to explain away possession of cannabis but it didn't interest me. But now the alternative is to write a sestina, which is a pretty formidable prospect. And so, back to the heroic verse. The inspiration, however, comes from the story of St Benezet, the guy who built a bridge in a little town called Avignon...

Pleased to meet you. They call me Benezet.
Just a shepherd, no one special you’d say.
I was watching my sheep by Avignon
(the town to be made famous through a song)
When I heard God’s voice speak to me, “Go down”,
He said, “And tell the people of that town
Build a bridge across that river, so a
Traveller can safely cross that river
To rest his head within the town”, and then
He added, “I’m right behind you, dear Ben.”
So I picked up my crook, and found someone
To care for my sheep till my task was done.
Then down I walked to Avignon to see
How I could complete my task. Just to be
In this great town was indeed a delight
A change from looking after sheep all night
But I knew I could not forget my task
So I went down to the bishop to ask
If he could build a bridge 'cross the river
For God wanted it done, that much was clear
But he and the townspeople laughed at me
(They all thought that I was being funny)
But I was determined, and persisted
"Build God that bridge!" I firmly insisted.
They didn't believe me (which was quite rude)
And so they asked me, "Young man, if you could
Carry that little stone just a short way
We'll build that bridge for you, starting today!"
So I looked at the stone and had a shock
Their little stone was a mighty great rock!
So I called on God, and asked for his aid
"You said you'd help me out, dear Lord" I prayed
Then I gave that big rock a shove and heave
Those townpeople didn't know what to believe
For God heard my prayer and lent me a hand
With his help I carried that rock to the
River and threw it in. I said, "Look here"
To the townspeople, "Fulfil your promise."
They looked at each other and mumbled "Yes".
So a bridge now spans that river, and hey!
Guess what - they now call me, "St Benezet".

Poetry Exercise No. 14: Villanelle

Ok, I personally think this is a terrible attempt. But I have stopped writing for some time, so am pushing this out just to get started again. The assignment is a villanelle. I've actually explained the villanelle form in an earlier post so all that's left now is the exercise. Since the villanelle is a French form, I sought inspiration from my recent trip to France (for more, read here). Here goes:

The Chateau of Chenonceau

Through my galleries people come and go
They live, dream, laugh and cry, whilst all the while
Beneath my bridges does the river flow

Thomas Bohier first built the chateau
Katherine his wife furnished it with style
Through my galleries people come and go

Henry Second the castle did bestow
On lovely Diane just to see her smile
Beneath my bridges does the river flow

Henry died and Catherine his widow
Seized Chenonceau for her very own pile
Through my galleries people come and go

Catherine built a hall for the chateau
Festivals were held, dances in the aisle
Beneath this hall does the river flow

Now, tourists walk the halls of Chenonceau
For the camera their faces do smile
Through my galleries people come and go
Beneath my bridges watch the river flow

Photo shows the great hall at Chenonceau, built over the river. Note that there is a certain poetic licence taken in one verse.

P.S. For villanelles, the middle line must rhyme throughout, just as the first line of each verse must rhyme with the last. A rhyming dictionary is pretty useful here.

P.P.S I had to amend the poem. Forgot that villanelles are supposed to have only 6 stanzas of 3 lines each. Anyway, don't think the junked verses were much loss.

A Case of Gender Confusion

My father has been feeding two cats from the nearby road for some time now. They are pretty animals - white, with just a few black markings on their foreheads. Every evening, he picks them up, brings them into a house and puts them in the cage so that they can be fed without interference from the other cats. Then, after they have eaten, he releases them.

Anyway, preliminary assessment was that they were both males. We had (as usual) been making preparations for sterilising the two cats and the plan was to familiarise them to human contact, and then hopefully find them an adopter. In the interim, I called them whiteboy1 and whiteboy2 (no more intimate names as these would lead to greater feeling of involvement and ownership). We had taken the larger of the two for sterilisation but my father felt that the smaller one could wait a little.

Such was the state of affairs when my father and I were walking home Sunday evening and saw Paddy, our big male cat lying on top of some white fur. Now we had neutered Paddy so that, in itself was surprising. It was even more surprising, when we approached a little nearer to Paddy, and found that he was lying on top of whiteboy2!!!

Well, Paddy's behaviour was not inexplicable. After all, we did neuter him a little late in the day (we were prioritising females, younger males first). As for whiteboy2 - the simplest explanations are often likely to be the most accurate. Looks as though whiteboy2 is really whitegirl, on heat.

Back to cats

Now that I have finished all these French posts, I can go back to blogging about my daily life and more importantly, my cats!

I did not mention it earlier but whilst I was in France I got a sad SMS from my mother: "Patches died". This was the day after I messaged her to check on the cats and she had replied "all ok". So this message was a little unexpected.

Patches is one of our "street cats" i.e. he lives somewhere on the street and we feed him at night. He's been around awhile, and I suspect could have fathered one of the pirate kittens, Smee (they both have slightly shorter "munchkin"-like legs), prior to his being neutered. He tried coming to our house but Paddy chased him off and so he is fed on the pavement opposite our house.

One day my father (the chief feeder) said that he hadn't seen Patches around for a week. Now the thing about the street cats is that they come and go frequently - if they disappear, it is very difficult for us to find them. So we could only wait for Patches to reappear which he did, a day or two later, on our doorstep. His appearance was shocking - completely bedraggled, very thin, and could hardly walk. We put him in one of the cages, fed him (he was really hungry) and monitored him. The next day, we took him out of the cage so he could eat and walk around a bit. Then, despite his weak state, he staggered outside and refused to come back. As the days passed this pattern continued. He came regularly for food but left after he had eaten. He seemed to improve. The other cats did not like his appearance on our doorstep and avoided the house when he was around.

Whilst I was in France, these little journeys of his proved his undoing. It rained torrents one day and poor Patches was caught in it. He came back soaked to the skin. My parents dried him off, put him in a towel and tried to warm him up. But by the morning, he had passed away. Poor Patches. He was a spunky and independent cat, and when we got to know him better, an affectionate one. We will miss him.


It has generally not been a good time for our cats. Sootie has been urinating blood. It is a result of feeding him cheap cat food - what can we do when we feed 15 cats in total - but false economy now as the vet bills are racking up. At our first visit, we got some antibiotics for him. 3 weeks after our initial visit, the problem is still there. Brought him for a second vet visit and found he's now dehydrated. He needs to be infused with about 220ml of saline, for 3 days in a row. He refuses the healthy prescription diet supplied by the vet and so we need to decide whether to give him the food which he is used to, even tho' its not so good for him. As the picture shows, he is very well behaved at the vet - terrified, poor boy.

Mickey's got problems eating, and of course his worm problem hasn't gone away either. Another vet visit, but at least the inflamation in his mouth is going away and his appetite is back (in a big way). Mollie, on the other hand has been limping for a few days now. Whiteboy1 (another stray) had an abcess on his cheek, likely caused by a wound infected from a fight. Fortunately it has burst and we cleaned it and threw antiseptic powder on it.

And of course, Dinky has gotten fleas from somewhere! Sigh. It never rains but paws.